When Kurt Busch was asked if there is any concern about the performance from him and the Chip Ganassi Racing team, he offers a direct answer in a typical Busch style.
Kurt Busch currently sits 17th in the Cup Series point standings heading into the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. Within the season’s first 11 races, Kurt has earned just only two top-10 finishes, has an average finish of 18.8.
“We’re just not getting the job done,” Busch said this week. “That’s flat out. And we’re not ignoring that fact.”
“We’re doing really good at running 11th at the end of the stages, and we haven’t quite found the balance in traffic this year,” he said. “Our car, we’ve made a step in the wrong direction in my mind on maneuverability and being able to put fresh tires on and go for it. Right now, our car seems to take 10 laps to get the tires heated up, and so at Kansas, I think we were 11th in the first stage, 12th in the second stage, and finished the race 15th.”
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“Harvick was back there after a pit road penalty with us, we were one of the last cars on the lead lap, and he knifed his way through there to get to second,” Busch pointed out. “Our car just could not give me the confidence to make moves and to make bold, carving decisions through the corner. I just had to kind of nurse it home. We needed those points because we’ve just been in a snowball.
“We had a bad finish at Atlanta, and then we started 30th the next week due to the qualifying matrix. Well, when you do that, now you’re in the back. Plus, you get a bad pit selection. Now guys are blocking you in on pit road all day. So, it’s been a battle, and we’re just laughing at the whole matrix of the qualifying and starting position. I’m really excited for COTA and for the Coke 600, where we get our own qualifying sessions.”
“We have to really look ourselves in the mirror and challenge ourselves to get out of this little rut that we’re in and put ourselves in a better playoff position — and to make a run through the playoffs later. Lots of cool tracks coming up. Some are in the playoffs. Some aren’t. The road courses are going to be fun this summer. No real reason to have a huge panic, but we can’t have any more blow-up races, so to speak. We can’t get caught up in any wrecks, not of our doing.”
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